David Weinberger on Individual and Social Elements of Tools
Ah, more on the individual/group nature of tools. (Hm, why do I shy away from the word social? Have to think about that.) In Many-to-Many: Internalizing socialization David asks: Are individualistic tools adding social components, and are we using those components?
What was fascinating was a comment from Todd Richmond who questioned the social/individual dichotomy and instead posited the notion of a "slider." He wrote:There is a danger is trying to label all of the bits as “social” or “individual”. In the end, pretty much all media is both: I imagine two sliders from 0-100 for individual and social (this is part of my object theory for media, but that’s another rant), but in this case, neither can go all the way to zero. Even the most social tool and media element has individual components, and in fact the “final” meaning is determined by the individual’s engagement. And the most individual element has some social aspect, even if it is just shared between multiple personalities of the same person (we’re all Sybil at heart).
Most excellent! Worth a virtual truffle!
posted by Nancy White at 12:59 PM
2 Comments:
All right, you've got me already with that chocobranding thing. Only a few weeks of reading your blog and I reflexively think "Nancy" when I see chocolate. :)
Ah, Seb, you've detected my evil plan for world choco-domination (she says, while enjoying the last bit of a Coconut Gold Bar before it melts in the unseasonably warm Seattle morning.)
Cue the evil laugh track!
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